War, Conflict and Human Rights is an innovative new inter-disciplinary textbook, combining aspects of law, politics and conflict analysis to examine the relationship between human rights and armed conflict. Making use of both theoretical and practical approaches, this book: examines the tensions and complementarities between protection of human rights and resolution of conflict - the competing political demands and the challenges posed by internal armed conflict; explores the scope and effects of human rights violations in contemporary armed conflicts, such as in Sierra Leone, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the former Yugoslavia, as well as the 'Global War on Terror'; assesses the legal and institutional accountability mechanisms developed in the wake of armed conflict to punish violations of human rights law and international humanitarian law such as the ad hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and the International Criminal Court; discusses continuing and emergent global trends and challenges in the fields of human rights and conflict analysis. This book will be essential reading for students of war and conflict studies, human rights and international humanitarian law, and highly recommended for students of conflict resolution, peacebuilding, international security and international relations, generally. Chandra Sriram is Professor of International Law at the University of East London and Director of the Centre for Human Rights in Conflict. Olga Martin-Ortega is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Human Rights in Conflict at the University of East London. Johanna Herman is Research Fellow at the Centre on Human Rights in Conflict at the University of East London.

The conduct of armed conflict is increasingly being outsourced to private military and security companies, whose legal position remains unclear. This book identifies and analyses the human rights and humanitarian law framework applicable to these companies, examining how they can be held to account and how victims can obtain remedies.

'Human rights and conflict' is divided into three parts, each capturing the role played by human rights at a different stage in the conflict cycle.

Human rights and the norms of modern warfare -- Humanizing the laws of war -- The implosion of Iraq : "shock and awe," insurgency, and sectarian terror -- The Gaza wars, 2008-2014 : human rights agency and advocacy -- Who's responsible? Justice and accountability -- "Kind-hearted gunmen" : human rights and humanitarian intervention

This book reviews the war on terror since 9/11 from a human rights perspective.

This compilation includes U.S. laws on human rights, basic U.N. human rights instruments, regional human rights instruments, laws of armed conflict and a description of human rights bodies established by U.S. laws or multilateral instruments. Includes an analysis of current U.S. legislation relating human rights to U.S. foreign policy by a Congressional Research Service analyst, covering the text of country-specific provisions in these laws.

Following the 1998 peace agreement in Northern Ireland, political violence has dramatically declined and the region has been promoted as a model for peacemaking. Human rights discourse has played an ongoing role in the process but not simply as the means to promote peace. The language can also become a weapon as it is appropriated and adapted by different interest groups to pursue social, economic, and political objectives. Indeed, as violence still periodically breaks out and some ethnocommunal and class-based divisions have deepened, it is clear that the progression from human rights violations to human rights protections is neither inevitable nor smooth. Human Rights as War by Other Means traces the use of rights discourse in Northern Ireland's politics from the local civil rights campaigns of the 1960s to present-day activism for truth recovery and LGBT equality. Combining firsthand ethnographic reportage with historical research, Jennifer Curtis analyzes how rights discourse came to permeate grassroots politics and activism, how it transformed those politics, and how rights discourse was in turn transformed. This ethnographic history foregrounds the stories of ordinary people in Northern Ireland who embraced different rights politics and laws to conduct, conclude, and, in some ways, continue the conflict—a complex portrait that challenges the dominant postconflict narrative of political and social abuses vanquished by a collective commitment to human rights. As Curtis demonstrates, failure to critique the appropriation of rights discourse in the peace process perpetuates perilous conditions for a fragile peace and generates flawed prescriptions for other conflicts.

War, Conflict and Human Rights is an innovative inter-disciplinary textbook, combining aspects of law, politics and conflict analysis to examine the relationship between human rights and armed conflict. This third edition has been fully revised and updated, and contains a completely new chapter on business, conflict and human rights. Making use of both theoretical and practical approaches, the authors: examine the tensions and complementarities between protection of human rights and resolution of conflict – the competing political demands and the challenges posed by internal armed conflict and the increasing role of nonstate actors, including corporations, in armed conflicts; explore the scope and effects of human rights violations in contemporary armed conflicts, such as in Sierra Leone, Sudan, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the former Yugoslavia; assess the legal and institutional accountability mechanisms developed in the wake of armed conflict to punish violations of human rights law and international humanitarian law such as the ad hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, hybrid or internationalized tribunals and the International Criminal Court; discuss continuing and emergent global trends and challenges in the fields of human rights and conflict analysis. This volume will be essential reading for students of war and conflict studies, human rights and international humanitarian law, and highly recommended for students of conflict resolution, peacebuilding, international security, transitional justice and international relations generally.

This book examines the UK approach to investigating international crimes and serious human rights violations. In 2010, the United Nations Secretary General referred to the emerging system of international justice, including the creation of the International Criminal Court, as the ‘Age of Accountability.’ However, the UK has sometimes struggled to comply with its international law obligations. Using examples from the post-World War II period to 2018, interviews with leading UK military lawyers and newly disclosed official documents, this work explains the legal duties, how the UK military and civilian justice systems investigate alleged military misconduct and highlights the challenges involved. It provides suggestions on strengthening domestic law and policy and its importance for the UK’s legitimacy as an exporter of rule of law expertise. This text is essential reading for practitioners, academics, government officials and students of international, criminal, humanitarian or human rights law.